September 4, 2011

Friday around six fifteen I landed back in Haiti. I was due in at three in the afternoon but we had engine trouble. Actually we were late in boarding the flight for Port au Prince because of “an engine problem” but it was supposedly taken care of and so off we went only to be in the air about twenty-five minutes when an announcement was made that that the “engine trouble” reappeared and we were turning back to Miami. Well we did that, landing amid lots of fire trucks on the field (“a standard procedure” they said) with no problem. I wasn’t scared but I did have some thoughts of “what if”. Anyway in about an hour we re-boarded another plane and arrived safely.

My stay in the US was devoted mostly to rest. I was pretty wiped out after the provincial visitation. I had spent lots of energy trying to convince the provincial to allow our seven Haitian candidates to make their novitiate here in Haiti but it was not to be. They are now getting their passports and visas ready to leave for Brazil later this month. The novitiate will not begin until February so they will have plenty of time to learn some Portuguese, the language of Brazil.
A positive outcome of the visit was the decision to begin building a house of formation on our newly acquired property. More on that later. Also we put together some guidelines for a five year plan concerning our Oblate foundation here in Haiti. I’ll share some of that later also. Tom Hagan was in on that discussion as well as others we had. Tom was eloquent in speaking of what he hopes will be the aim of our foundation, namely to work with and for the poor. Please God that that will be so as the years progress. I think that was the aim of the Oblate American foundation back over a hundred years ago but very subtly we’ve become, like the early immigrants to the USA, very middle class and very comfortable. I think we Oblates do good work but there is not much focus on the poor and the disenfranchised.

As for the construction of a wall and a house of formation we need to begin, I just met with Osias’ brother Macendy who may be able to help with this project. I was thinking that Pere Joseph a Scalabrini priest who has been here for years and who has supervised the building of their complex could supervise our building project. He certainly has been very helpful in getting us the property, etc. and has given me to understand that he has men who can work for us. However when it comes right down to it I find out that because of the many irons he has in the fire, he can’t take personal responsibility for our project. What we need is a person who can be on the spot and who can be a liaison with Joseph who will help him with the buying of materials, etc. That person is Osias’ brother – maybe. Tomorrow we will go out to meet with Joseph to see if this arrangement will work. I hope it does because if not I don’t know where to turn. So pray Macendy can do what’s needed and that we can get the ball rolling.

Last night I picked up the biography I was reading, André Ravier’s Francis de Sales Sage and Saint. The more I read about St. Francis de Sales the happier I am to be one of his sons. Francis faced all kinds of impossible tasks, tasks that would weary anyone, but he had a great spirit. One of the things he accomplished was to visit many of the parishes of his very large diocese. He did most of this on horseback through very difficult passes through the Alps where he lived. He’d completed a long trip and soon had to set out on another. Here’s what he wrote to St Jane de Chantal:”I am going on this blessed visitation in which I see at the end of the field crosses of all kinds. My flesh trembles, but my heart adores them. Yes, I salute you, small and great crosses. I salute you and kiss your foot, unworthy of the honor of your shade.” And later to another person he wrote: “I have preached regularly every day and frequently twice a day. Ah! How good God is to me! I have never felt stronger. All the crosses that I had foreseen initially have only been olive trees and palm trees; everything that seemed like gall to me has proved to be like honey or something better. I can say, in all truth, however that except for the time when I am riding horseback or waiting to fall asleep at night, I have had no leisure to give any thought to myself or to consider the direction of my heart, so closely did important preoccupations crowd upon each other. I have confirmed a countless number of people.” What a guy! My hero! I hope I can be the same and do the same as our patron.

That’s it for now. I hope all are enjoying the Labor Day weekend and that the new “school” year will be a blessed one for all. Count on my prayers. Tom